LOOKS like a handful to fly.
I had a friend who flew a Gulfstream G1 out of PDK for many years, who was a pilot on the "Peace maker" and I reall many conversations that we had about the RB-36. The one he flew had all the retractable gun turrets removed except the G-32 radar operated 20MM tail guns. His comment was that it flew pretty much like any heavy aircraft below 40,000 feet, the problem was when they climbed higher than 40K, that was when it was much harder to fly. Restricted to 10 degrees of bank, and with the J-47's running 100%, it became, according to him, a beast! Even though it had large control surfaces, the slow speeds at which it flew above 40K, it was subjected to "CAT", which he said was one of their fears in the big bird because of the fear of "upsets". He said that he had encountered one during the years he flew the 36 and they almost lost the aircraft, but recovered it down around 30K.
His big compliant was the 12 to 18 hour missions which they flew. Even though they all carried a 3rd pilot and could get up and move around, it wasn't like you could actually rest. They had "bunks" in the rear compartment, which someone could take a nap on, but if your position was in the front of the aircraft, to get to the bunks, you had to lay on your back on a "crawler", which if I remember correctly was 66 feet long. I am like he said, I would never be comfortable knowing that in an emergency, I would have to lay on that crawler back to the front of the aircraft. He said he never did that, for that reason. I think that they also had 2 "bunks" in radio compartment in the front, I think, but can't remember for sure.
He used to talk about the "intercept" missions they flew. They would act as target ship for ANG and active Air Force interceptor squadrons, practicing for high altitude intercepts, over the gulf of Mexico. He said the only aircraft which could get two "gun camera" shots on them, above 50K, was the Lockheed F-104's. They would get behind them, go super sonic, zoom up and get gun camera pass on the way up and then the B-36 would turn and if the 104 pilot was sharp, could get another "shot" on the way back down! He said it was a lot of fun trying to outsmart the 104 pilot..
